The US Civil War comes to a close.

Lawrence and I finished up our second campaign of "The US Civil War".  When we left off the CSA was on the ropes - Union forces just outside Chattanooga in strength with only 3sp in the fortified city and no LOC to the outside to bring in reinforcements.  In the East Lee had been pushed out of Virginia in North (maybe south) Carolina, and in the far west things were looking better but not by much.  The South had retaken most of the area but their forces were stretched thin.

Fall 1864 and the USA elections are coming up!  A chance to enlighten the Northern voters of their oppression of the south!

Robert E Lee and the army of Norther Virginia break away from contact with the Army of the Potomac and make a mad dash for points North chased by the AOP all the way!

Reinforcements are shipped into DC and they move south to intercept Lee, Lee intercepts them and crushes them in battle (the yellow marker just above the battle location at the top).  Lee and the CANV then move back down to the coast and take out a couple of union SP there.  Grant and the AOP follow and block the route to DC.

In the West Sherman attacks Chattanooga.  (could not find a GIF of Federal troops)

Sherman's attack on Chattanooga crushes the forces there.  If the south had gone first Longstreet was going to run away to prepare to defend Atlanta.  Atlanta has a fort built to prepare for it's defense.  Sherman does not end up marching on the city, instead consolidating his hold on Chattanooga (I thought for sure he would march on Atlanta right away).  Early chases and fights a small Federal force south of Atlanta.

The guy I had in the far west botched every roll and ends up in charge of a single strength point with no gains of any kind.  The writing is on the wall here - the only thing keeping the union from taking all of this area is lack of impulses to spend on it.

The Point totals were a couple points shy of an auto-victory for the South so the game goes to turn 20.  It is winter and the so the south may lose troops - the dice are rolled for the blockade runners and the total is 3 or 4 (forget, two weeks ago...) troops lost to attrition.  That is going to hurt since the union already holds a massive force advantage now.  Troops are removed and shifted away from Vicksburg (1sp left) and New Orleans (also 1 sp left behind) to shift them to Atlanta to face Sherman.

The south gets to go first.  In the East Lee moves back to North Carolina leaving militia behind to defend the state of Virginia.  While in the West the south start an upgrade to the existing for in Atlanta.

Sherman marches on Atlanta and attacks!  Both sides have a +6 to the combat rolls.  Sherman + another leader + a combat card, Johnston + Longstreet + fort.  The North has more troops but all the south needs is a tie to hold the fort - not out of the question...

The south rolls snake eyes (worst possible roll) and the north rolls above average.  The south loses 4sp and the north only 1.  Atlanta falls and with that I concede the game.  The forces in the area are less then half the strength of Sherman's stack (by a large margin, he could leave half his force behind as supply line guards and still have twice the strength).  This allows Sherman to keep moving after any battle and so there is no chance of stopping him from taking all the nearby production/vp spaces.

I conceded before any activation was done in the far west.

This is a LONG grueling game for the south.  As a player you better have fun running away and making feints since that is the majority of the southern strategy - and I still came up short at the end.  The CSA was 3 to 10 points ahead on the VP chart till the last two turns and then the Union forces cracked Chattanooga.  After that Atlanta will be attacked and VP smorgasbord awaits the union player.  Lawrence correctly pointed out that I could use cavalry to cut supply even after the Atlanta debacle but I think that would only delay the inevitable at that point.  If Atlanta had held for the one battle Sherman's forces would be demoralized and a follow up attack would take time - and face a +8 DR for the South since the fort would have been upgraded.

An excellent game, but as I have said it is grueling.  The north is constantly worrying about supply and trying to catch RE Lee (and any other defense level 2 general with cavalry).  The south is constantly trying to threaten the north by maneuver, to cut supply with cavalry, and to force the union to garrison ground that they take in order to slow them down.